Old School Runescape The Blood Moon Rises arrives on June 30th! | Unlock the gates of Vampyrium with Insane Skilling Meta and BIS Gear

As Myreque saga storyline comes to a close, Old School Runescape will welcome a brand new Grandmaster quest - The Blood Moon Rises - on June 30th.

This update not only concludes the story but also takes players beyond the borders of Morytania, deep into Vampyrium, the ancestral home of vampires. Furthermore, a series of new skill training and Slayer monsters, along with a final boss that completely reshapes the melee and ranged gear landscape, will take you to the end of the story and bring an end to vampire rule.

Quest Rewards

Completing The Blood Moon Rises will permanently unlock Vampyrium area and grant players two new weapons designed to optimize Blood Shard economy:

Blisterwood Flail Upgrade

This upgraded flail, forged from your remaining Blasterwood Flail, is the ultimate weapon against vampires. While its base stats differ from the original Blasterwood, the upgraded flail boasts an incredibly fast attack speed of 4 ticks and high accuracy, making it an undeniable weapon for players AFK or efficiently farming Blood Shards.

New Spec Weapon

In addition, a brand-new special attack weapon will drop upon quest completion. This special attack weapon is designed for finishing off low-health targets, encouraging more aggressive play and reliably eliminating low-health targets. However, its true highlight lies in its special attack - Seeking Lunge.

This skill allows you to unleash an attack that deals 70% of your maximum damage by consuming 50% of your special energy, making it easier to eliminate stronger targets. Combined with Flail Upgrade's normal attacks, this special weapon allows for more consistent finishing moves and significantly reduces farming time, helping players quickly collect Blood Shards outside of vampire battles.

It's worth noting that although this two-handed weapon is untradeable, if you accidentally lose it, you can redeem it for a fee comparable to other high-level untradeable weapons.

Vampyrium Area: New Skills and Resources

Next, let's look at the new map, Vampyrium, which offers a wealth of skill training paths for players who prefer casual or hardcore gameplay:

Woodcutting: Bloodwood Trees

In the crimson forests of OSRS, you'll see towering Bloodwood Trees, their bark oozing red blood. But don't be alarmed; these slightly frightening trees actually provide a brand-new way to lumberjack and are an efficient XP farming method designed specifically for players who have reached level 70 Woodcutting, allowing them to gain valuable resources.

In a low-intensity AFK state, Bloodwood Trees can provide approximately 50,000-60,000 Woodcutting experience per hour. Therefore, this is currently a relatively easy way to steadily increase experience points in the game. Of course, for players who want to participate more actively, high-intensity focused logging can bring you nearly 90,000 XP per houther.

The core resource obtained through logging is Bloodwood sap, a key ingredient for crafting Seeker Arrows. These arrows provide +23 Ranged Accuracy and guarantee a minimum of 3 damage. We can craft them by applying Bloodwood sap to high-grade logs (more resource-efficient) or using ready-made arrows.

It's worth mentioning that the PvM system in Vampyrium can effectively assist you in logging and collecting Bloodwood sap.

Hunting vampire packs and completing encounters may yield items that can greatly improve your logging efficiency, whether it's increasing the sap gathered from Bloodwood Trees or increasing sap production after buffs. Of course, bosses may also directly drop a small amount of Bloodwood sap as a supplementary resource source.

This ensures that players simultaneously engaging in Woodcutting skill training and combat can progress more quickly overall.

Fishing and Cooking: Leechfins and Sandwiches

For fishing enthusiasts, The Blood Moon Rises also offers a brand new way to acquire resources. Notice Leechfins in the blood-red river? Players with a Fishing level of 70 or higher can earn approximately 60,000 fishing experience per hour by fishing for this new creature. While fishing for Leechfins doesn't provide the highest XP compared to some advanced fishing methods, it does offer a completely new food source.

In terms of interactivity, fishing for Leechfins won't leave you completely idle or overly clicking; you just need to progress steadily. Combined with the unique vampire theme, this makes it a good option for players who value resources and atmosphere more than just XP.

Once you catch a Leechfin, you can make it into a new food, Leechfin Sandwich, which instantly restores 16 health and has only a 2-tick attack delay; the next successful melee attack will heal another 16 health. However, the trade-off is that the next feeding delay will be extended to 9 ticks, severely testing the player's timing.

More importantly, this extra healing effect must trigger within 12 seconds. If not used in time, the extra healing effect disappears, and the effect does not stack. With proper time management, you can flexibly handle scenarios involving continuous melee combat and delayed healing - but carelessness will be punished.

Hunting: Stymphikes and Venators

While gathering resources, don't forget that countless monsters are lurking in the blood-red forests of Old School Runescape!

First, watch out for Stymphikes that hover in the canopy during The Blood Moon Rises. These are brand-new hunter training targets, offering high experience rewards, and capturing them also grants the opportunity to kill Venators outside of quests.

However, before defeating Stymphikes, you must reach Hunter level 76 and collect some small creatures as bait to lure them down from the air. If you wish to skip this intense phase, you can choose to unlock these lures in Grand Exchange using Old School Runescape gold on your main account, allowing you to focus on the upcoming boss hunt.

However, the focus of hunting Stymphikes isn't on the item rewards they offer, but rather on increasing Hunter experience, supplemented by smaller themed rewards and fun elements to enhance the gameplay experience.

But the deadliest enemies in the vampire world are Venators, hordes of vampire beasts born for bloodlust and relentless pursuit.

Hunting these Venators requires you to reach level 74 Slayer. However, they were designed as an alternative to Vampyre Slayer questline, aiming to address the chronic overcrowding problem in Vampyre Sentinels. Especially for players collecting Blood Shards, Venators provide a stable source of Blood Shards, allowing players more breathing room to accumulate more resources.

Ultimate Boss: The Maggot King

The top-tier boss guarding the core area of ​​Vampyrium is The Maggot King. Defeating him offers a chance to obtain game-changing equipment upgrades:

• Crimson Bludgeon: A brand-new two-handed weapon with a Crush attribute. Its design directly targets Dragon Claws or Voidwakers, making it the best alternative against monsters weak to crush.
• Necklace of Pursuit: A brand-new Best-in-Slot (BIS) ranged necklace. Its stats are extremely powerful, providing +22 Ranged Accuracy and +8 Ranged Strength.

Players need to obtain Alpha Venator Tooth from the boss, use 84 crafting to carve it into a tradable component, and then combine it with the existing Necklace of Anguish. This design successfully consumes existing necklaces in the game, ensuring value while preventing players from sacrificing additional Zenyte jewelry for trading or storing items.

In short, The Blood Moon Rises perfectly blends rich skill training methods, Blood Shard economic balance, and top-tier boss challenges, including the new BIS gear, making it undoubtedly the most impactful and far-reaching epic update to Old School RuneScape in 2026.